Ajit Singh’s RLD joins NDA (Second Lead)

New Delhi, March 2 (IANS) The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) led by Ajit Singh Monday announced that it had joined the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and would have a poll pact with the main constituent of the alliance, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The move was announced at a joint press conference by Ajit Singh, NDA convener Sharad Yadav and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani, who said on the occasion that alliances had now become an essential part of Indian politics.

“Today, Ajit Singh has joined the NDA and this has increased the possibility of people getting rid of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre and the politics of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh,” Advani said.

“The NDA has the biggest profile of supporters of weaker sections and farmers and this gets completed with Ajit Singh joining the coalition,” Sharad Yadav added.

According to Ajit Singh, son of former prime minister and farmer leader Charan Singh, there was “need for a change in Indian politics” and, at the moment, this could be brought about only by the NDA.

Party insiders in the BJP said that seven seats had been given to the RLD — six in its stronghold western Uttar Pradesh and one, Sitapur, in central Uttar Pradesh.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, the RLD won three of the 10 seats it contested in alliance with the Samajwadi Party in western Uttar Pradesh.